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Hurtado said intelligence reports and tips from informants led troops to the vessel. He said the sub was empty when soldiers found it and no one was arrested.

The 99-foot-long (30-meter) fiberglass boat has room for a crew of six and is powered by two diesel engines and has an air-conditioned interior, Hurtado said. He said it can submerge up to 9 feet (3 meters) deep and is equipped with a 16½-foot (5 meter) periscope.

"The engines were already fully installed and ready to go," Hurtado said.

The sub had "the capacity to sail totally underwater and the ability to travel to the coast of Mexico without surfacing," he added. He said such a trip would take eight to nine days.

Hurtado estimated the vessel had taken six to eight months to build and cost about $2 million.

He said Colombia has seized at least 32 semi-submersible vessels designed to smuggle drugs over the last decade, including a dozen last year.